The bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks is set to get a committee vote Thursday and could be on the floor of the Senate by next week, said Senate President Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin).

Lazich and other backers of the bill said it was aimed at preventing abortions at the point at which fetuses can feel pain.

But Tosha Wetterneck, an internal medicine physician for University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, said at the Tuesday hearing that "overwhelming" scientific evidence shows fetuses cannot feel pain at that stage. She testified on behalf of the Wisconsin Medical Society.

Abortions at that stage are usually performed because of fetal anomalies in which the child would not survive for long outside of the womb, she told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and the Assembly Health Committee.

"These are difficult decisions made between a patient and her physician," she said. "(The bill) lowers the quality of care we can provide for our women patients."

But Republicans supporting the bill noted some scientific studies backed their view that fetuses could feel pain at 20 weeks.

"It is a life. It feels pain," said Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc).

"If there is any chance that a 5-month-old baby who is systematically dismembered in the womb can feel her body being torn apart, will you be content to sit idly by?" asked Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum), a bill sponsor.

A 2005 study in the Journal of American Medical Association found fetuses were unlikely to have that ability before the third trimester. A 2010 report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reached the same finding.

In defending the legislation, Kremer cited a 2008 study that children without a cerebral cortex exhibit behavior indicating they have consciousness. He indicated that was a sign that fetuses without fully developed brains could feel pain.

Under the bill, any woman who receives an abortion may sue the doctor who performs it, and so may the father except in cases of rape or incest.

The bill includes a medical emergency exception for instances in which the life of the mother is in immediate danger. It does not include other exceptions, such as for rape or incest.

The bill includes penalties of up to $10,000 and 31/2 years in jail for anyone who is convicted of performing an abortion after 20 weeks.

Wisconsin law bans abortions once fetuses achieve viability, which generally happens at 24 weeks of pregnancy.

In 2013, 89 abortions were performed in Wisconsin after 20 weeks of gestation, according to state figures. They accounted for about 1% of the 6,462 abortions performed that year.

Fourteen other states ban abortion 18 or 20 weeks after fertilization.

If Wisconsin's law is approved, a legal challenge is likely. Similar laws in Georgia, Arizona and Idaho have been blocked by courts.

Besides the medical society, the ban is opposed by the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians and the Wisconsin chapters of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Doug Laube, an obstetrician, UW School of Medicine professor and past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has said the women seeking later-term abortions often want to be pregnant but find out midway through their pregnancies that there are serious medical problems.

"The practice of medicine by legislators who have no medical background and who will never understand the real-world impact of their ideological agenda is damaging to families and damaging to the profession of medicine," Laube said in a statement Tuesday.

Others said they considered abortions at that stage unacceptable.

"I'm both a scientist and a feminist and I'm appalled that in a civilized country we've allowed a level of cruelty against other humans that we would not tolerate against animals," said Maureen Condic, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah. "Many animals that don't even have the structures of the brain that are asserted to be required for suffering nonetheless experience pain."

The bill faces opposition from some anti-abortion groups because they do not support an exemption in the bill for medical emergencies.

Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, argued there is no medical situation in which the life of the mother is dependent upon terminating the fetus and doctors should strive to protect both.

About Patrick Marley

Patrick Marley covers state government and state politics. He is the author, with Journal Sentinel reporter Jason Stein, of "More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.”